dimanche 28 octobre 2012

The problem with the so-called "World's Strongest Man" contests is more about endurance strength and athletism than sheer power and brute strength?!? I want to know who is the world's strongest man not the world's strongest athlete!

World's Strongest Man my ass!?!If it was so, the 400-plus pounds O.D. Wilson wouldn't have been robbed the 1990 World's Strongest Man title in depend of the slimmer and better looking Jon Pall Sigmarsson. Losing a pointless timed long race carrying a very small weight??? It's supposed to be the World's Strongest Man not the world's fastest man...

Another example is when Gerritt Badenhorst - having an official deadlift of almost 900 pounds - was facing Forbes Cowan - slighter and weaker than him - in a static event of lifting and holding a car for time in a wheelbarrow fashion. Badenhorst lifted the car with ease while Cowan needed every bit of his strength to lift the car and struggled to raise the car to a locked position. However, Cowan was able to hold the car for a longer time than Badenhorst. So who is the strongest man now? I know for fact that this kind of static hold events are pointless, boring and more about mental toughness than physical strength.

So forget about speed, endurance, and athletism. In that kind of crappy competition even a monster like Louis Cyr - the strongest man who ever lived - wouldn't be able to qualifie and compete...

Arnold Strongman ClassicThis contest was specifically designed to not give an advantage to strongmen of any particular discipline. In other words, they designed three tests of strength that would represent each of the three three disciplines of strength (Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, and strongman). But each of the three events was made to put each competitors outside of their confort zone.Terry Todd and his wife Jan Todd, David Webster and Bill Kazmaier are the men behind the Arnold Strongman Classic. They are the men who just like me and thousands of other people wanted to know who is the REAL World's Strongest Man. Since each kingpin of the three disciplines are billed as the Strongest Man in the World. But who is the ultimate strongest man?

The 3 or 4 events

The first event they thought about was the Apollon's Wheels. An historical 366 pounds with a 1.93" thick bar. The wheel diameter is 26 inches (65 cm). Lifting the wheels from the floor to overhead as many times as possible in two minutes.A strength event designed to duplicate the Olympic clean-and-jerk but with a classic strongman twist that would put even the strongest weightlifter outside of his confort zone.

Second, our four masterminds wanted an event inspired by the WSM's Farmer's Walk but with a little twist to put strongman competitors off-balance. They wanted a ultra-heavy carrying event with a 30-second time-limit. Not the usual silly 90 seconds more designed to measure strength-endurance than actual strength. Then the Timber's Walk was created and since adopted by many strongman events across the world. A huge and fearsome 800 plus pounds square of wood designed to be gripped in the center by the competitor and walked up a wheelchair ramp.

Then the third event would be the unevitable deadlift. Being the most basic test of brute strength ever, deadlift was indispensable in a competition aiming to crowned the strongest man in the world. It was supposed to be a car or truck deadlift using regular bar-in-front-of-the-shin overhand grip. But unfortunately it wasn't met to be since the apparitus was impossible to climb on stage. So they settled for a regular maximum weight deadlift for singles using straps.

Another problem with the deadlift, since the 885 pounds was the maximum weight was the maximum weight that could be put on the bar. With the 8 humongous competitors presents, 885 lbs deadlift wasn't heavy enough for singles. So the organisators opted for a deadlift for repetitions. And they didn't want the grip strength to be a determining factor in the deadlift event. Since the Apollon's Wheels and the Timber's Walk were both taxing for the hands.

And the fourth event, pointless but somewhat necessary, was the Hummer truck push. Since Hummer was their major sponsor it was a kind of obligation to include an Hummer somewhere in the contest.

The 8 chosen onesThe original plan was to invite 8 competitors; two leading weightlifters, two leading powerlifters, two leading Strongman competitors, and two people who were outstanding in two or more of the disciplines of strength. I've also indicated all the men who were invited but declined.

Raimonds Bergmanis, Latvia, 6'3", 300, 31 years old Member of the security guard of the Latvia president3 times Olympian Champion in Weightlifting5 time Latvian Weightlifting ChampionWSM events competitor

In powerlifting1th choice: Brad Gillingham... 2th choice: Gary Frank, 6'4", almost 400 lbs WPO superstar who became the first man to squat over 1000 lbs, bench press over 700 lbs and deadlift over 900 lbs official lifts in one contest. Frank also has a background in the field events and football... 3th choice: Andy Bolton.

Brad Gillingham, Minneota, Minnesota, USA, 6'4", 325 lbs, 35 years old Environmental enginner for the state of Minnesota2000-2001 World SuperHeavyweight Powerlifting Champion in the International Powerlifting Federation5 times United States National Powerlifting Champion in the SuperHeavyweight divisionHis father was a 5 times NFL All-Pro

Andy Bolton, Leeds, England, 6', 330 lbs, 31 years old Security guard for the Stag security in Leeds2001 SuperHeavyweight World Powerlifting Champion in the World Powerlifting Congress5 times World Powerlifting Champion8 time British Champion in PowerliftingHolder of the all-time World Record in deadlift 921.5 pounds

Svend Karlsen, Norway, 6'3", 320 lbs Professional strongmanWinner of the ESPN World's Strongest Man competition last year (2001)Top rank strongman of the worldFormer professional bodybuilder, holder of an IBF card as a pro.

Phil Pfister, Charleston, West Virginia, USA, 6'6", 320 lbs, 30 years old Firefighter for Charleston West Virginia fire department and professional strongman A finalist of the last 3 years in the World's Strongest Man competitionsThe top-rated American Strongman competitor over the past couple of years.

Those who distinguished themselves in two of the three strenth discipline1th choice: Mark Philippi... 2th choice: Oklahoma's Shane Hamman, was one of the greatest squatters in the world with an official best of over 1000 pounds. Came from powerlifting into weightlifting erasing all three of Mark Henry's national record. Was seen as an ideal candidate... 3th choice: Greg Kovacs, 6'4", 380 lbs bodybuilder with claims of being the strongest man in the world doing such things as incline press 650 lbs x 6 reps and seated press 500 lbs x 10, and so on.... 4th choice: Mark Henry

Mark Philippi, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 6', 305 lbs, 36 years oldStrength and conditioning coach of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Last winner of the American Strongman Contest in 1999Finalist of the ESPN World's Strongest Man competitions Elite level powerlifter in the American Drugfree Powerlifting FederationMark Henry, Austin, Texas, USA, 6'3", 390 lbs, 30 years old WWE professional wrestler since 1996
Member of the 1992 and 1996 U.S. Olympic Team in Weightlifting
Many times National Champion in Weightlifting in the mid-90s
Holder of all the American Weightlifting Records
National and World Drug Free Powerlifting Champion in 1995 in the SuperHeavyweight class
Setting many world records in the Squat, Deadlift, and Total.
Holder of the World Record Deadlift of 903 poundsHolder, since early 1995, of the all-time highest combined weightlifting/powerlifting Supertotal as well as 5-lift-total (snatch, clean and jerk, squat, bench press, deadlift) in history - 3,171 pounds- all made within approximately six months.

Mark Henry won the Appolon's Wheels with 3 clean and jerk!!

The Challenge was the lifting of the Apollon's Wheels - a 366 pound (166 kg), 1.93 inch (49 mm) bar that doesn’t rotate and a wheel diameter of 26 inches (65 cm). Ivanko Barbell Company made an exact replica of the original APOLLON'S WHEELS. Man Mountain MARK HENRY won this event and eventually the Hummer by clean & jerking this ponderous beast of a weight 3 times!! It also equalled the world record.
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samedi 27 octobre 2012

Mixed martial arts is a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, from a variety of other combat sports. The roots of modern mixed martial arts can be traced back to the ancient Olympics where one of the earliest documented systems of codified full range unarmed combat was utilized in the sport of Pankration. Various mixed style contests took place throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900s. The combat sport of Vale Tudo that had developed in Brazil from the 1920s was brought to the United States by the Gracie family in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which is the largest MMA promotion company worldwide.

The original idea was to put world champions from eight fighting sports. But the so-called world champions, way out of their confort zone, weren't too keen into participating into that kind of event. The event was a eight man/discipline, one night, single-elimination bouts, style against style, $50,000 winner take all, tournament. No Holds Barred, no rules, no time limit, no judges, no rounds, no breaks, no timeouts, no weight classes, no weight limits, no mandatory safety equipment, no gloves. Just eight men in an eight-sided cage, The Octagon. It was anything goes fighting to the finish. The only way to win being knockout, submission, or death. It was great, it was legalized street fighting, it was the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

3 years pro champion of the Japanese professional Sumo circuit 24 years oldSumo record: 57-27-14 from March, 1987 to July, 1989.His sumo name was Takamishu. His highest rank was Makushita 2 (March, 1989)

Hello, this is the full video of the very first event of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. This was a dream coming true! A real-life Bloodsport / Street Fighter took place on November 12, 1993. Enjoy this priceless historical moment!

ResultsQuartas de finalQuarters-finalGerard Gordeau defeated Teila Tuli by TKO with a kick to the face at 0:26.Kevin Rosier defeated Zane Frazier by TKO at 4:18.ROYCE GRACIE defeated Art Jimmerson by submission at 2:18.Ken Shamrock defeated Patrick Smith by submission with a heel hook at 1:51.Semi finaisSemi-finalsGerard Gordeau defeated Kevin Rosier by TKO/corner stoppage at 1:03.ROYCE GRACIE defeated Ken Shamrock by submission with a rear naked choke at 0:57.FinalROYCE GRACIE defeated Gerard Gordeau by submission with a rear naked choke at 1:45 to become the first ever UFC champion.

How Royce Gracie became the ULTIMATE FIGHTER

Quarter-finals: defeated Art Jimmerson by submission in 2:18.

Semi-finals: defeated Ken Shamrock by submission in 0:57.

Final: defeated Gerard Gordeau by submission in 1:44 to become the first ever UFC champion and winner of $50,000.

Royce Gracie UFC 1 performance (5:31)

Royce Gracie Tributepar 55ArchangelHere is a look back at Royce Gracie from UFC 1 where he defeated three combatants through the bracket to win the 1 day, open weight, bare knuckles, no rules, nowhere to hide, 8 man tournament. He submitted 3 fighters in a combined total of 4:56 on the same night.

The Best Fighter in the World﻿

26 years old, Jiu-Jitsu Master

Hails from Torrance, California by the way of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

6'1", 178 lbs

Jiu-Jitsu Champion of Rio de Janeiro, World Light Heavyweight Champion

Training: "We have had intense training sessions. Two sessions per day and six days a week, sometimes we had three sessions a day. We began training at 6.30 a.m. about one hour before having breakfast. The next session was from 10 a.m. until 12 and then from 4.30 p.m. till 8 p.m. We had hard and extreme training sessions" (presstv.ir, 28 Sep 2010)

Powerlifting(Try to find out who is the current powerlifting world champion and I give you a gold medal if you find it!)Donnie Thompson

Nickname: The Donster

Weight: 350-385 lbs

Competitive Powerlifting Debut: 1998

Holder of 8 all-time world records in professional powerlifting

- 3 bench press records

- 2 squat records

- 3 total records (First man to Total 2900 pounds. First man to Total 3000 pounds).

Best Lifts:* Best Squat: 1,265 lbs * Best Bench: 950 lbs * Best Deadlift: 832 lbsDonnie has a massive best total of 3,000 lbs!800+ Pound Raw Deadlifter, 2,170 Pound Official Raw Total (no shirt, suit or knee wraps)Other Comments: Played professional football in the NFL and the Arena Football League for six years from 1987 to 1993.

CrossFit Games participation:2010 CrossFit Games 2nd overall2011 CrossFit Games 1st2012 CrossFit Games 1st

Training: Rich Froning constantly varies his workouts with no particular rhyme or reason and follows basic CrossFit protocol (constantly varied workouts with intensity). He trains several times during the day, and works out with a variety of exercises ranging from interval training, efficiency and movement drills, and other Crossfit related workouts. One of Froning’s favorite workouts is the muscle-up, which is performed on gymnastics rings. In a typical training week, he does Olympic and Power Lift 5 days a week and Metcons 6 days a week.

After his 2011 CrossFit Games triumph he declared: “I had trained five times a day for a year for this event, but the first workout still surprised me,” says Froning, citing the 210m ocean swim, 1500m beach run, 50 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 200 squats and second 1500m beach run that constituted the first workout challenge.

Diet: His diet is not as strict as you might think. He doesn’t really eat that much, and only eats when his body tells him he’s hungry and needs to refuel. Froning eats the majority of his daily food in the evenings. A typical nighttime meal for Froning would be steak and chicken with a sweet potato or frozen vegetables. He doesn't follow a specific plan. During the day, Froning eats simple meals that provide him with the energy he needs to compete. The athlete is a fan of peanut butter, whole milk, and protein shakes

Rich Froning tattoo on his side: “Galatians 6:14″Galatians 6:14 (NIV) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

A little fun! If we can take these 5 strength champions and put them in a blender and create the perfect strength athlete. We would get a 6'1", 308 pounds, 29 years old strength athlete. So it would be Denis Cyplenkov, a 30 years old arm wrestler and genetic freak who is the exact same height and weight as our "perfect strength athlete". Don't know if he can do a record pulls-up reps at that weight?

Who said that giant fighters are always plodding and clumsy? Here is a proof of the contrary, 6'11.5" (212 cm), 291 lbs (132 kg) with a wingspan of 88" (224 cm) "Hightower" Semmy Schilt is a four time (three times consecutive) K-1 Kickboxing World GP champion. He is the only fighter in K-1 history to win the championship three times in a row, and also shares the record with Ernesto Hoost for most GPs won, with four. And he is also an accomplished MMA & Ashihara Karate fighter.

Semmy Schilt is so superior and dominant that in 2009 he won his fourth WGP title getting the record of fastest GP win with a total time over all 3 matches of 352 seconds. Think about it, he streamrolled 3 world-class kickboxers in only 352 seconds! For an average of 1:57 per fight!!Many experts believes he is "the greatest K-1 fighter of all time". Let's see some facts to proove their claim.

K-1 Kickboxing

2005 K-1 Regional Grand Prix Champion in Paris

2005 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion

2006 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion

2007 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion

2009 K-1 World Grand Prix Champion

The first ever K-1 Super Heavyweight Championship in 2007(One time; Current) Also becoming the first man to KO'd Ray Sefo in K-1 competition.

Record Holder of the Most WGP Titles: 4 times in his 4 first participations (ex-aquo with Ernesto Hoost who was the first in history to won 4 K-1 WGP championships).

Record Holder of the Most consecutive WGP Titles: 3

Record Holder of the fastest WGP win: 3 opponents in 352 seconds (5:52). Beating the 1998's Peter Aerts WGP record winning time of 6:43.

Record Holder of the third fastest WGP win

Record Holder of the Longest K-1 Winning Streak: 13 Fights from September 2006 to June 2008

No fighter has dominated an era in K-1 history like four-time champion Semmy Schilt. The High Tower from Holland is, quite simply, the most powerful K-1 champion in history and a man who dominated the last ten years by breaking K-1's most time-honored records. Long live Semmy Schilt! Long live the King!

However, K-1 veteran Peter Aerts is probably his closest rival for the title of the greatest K-1 fighter of all-time. If Schilt dominated the 2000s era with his four Grand Prix titles, Peter Aerts dominated the 90s era by winning three Grand Prix tournaments. And as seen above in the section 'record vs. K-1 greats', Semmy Schilt got the upperhand in his feud against K-1 greatest fighters except for one, Peter Aerts. The veteran Peter Aert bested Schilt three times by judges decision (2006, 2008, 2010) in Schilt's era. Schilt defeated him twice, once by TKO (leg injury) and the other by decision. So how's the best? Watch the video below and make your choice.